South Carolina Family Funneling Grief Into Helping the Needy

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — He was referred to as TFew.

He liked to construct issues. To hunt and fish and be outside. Family and friends say he was at all times smiling.

Thomas Few would have been a junior at Clemson had he not slipped from the roof of a storage on the Kappa Alpha Home throughout the road from the college on a scorching June day in 2019, and died.

His household had moved to Greenville from Columbia in 2017. Thomas, his twin MacRae and older brother Evans graduated from A.C. Flora Excessive College. Additionally they have a youthful sister MaryWesley. One other brother, Jennings, had died in 2004 of sudden toddler loss of life syndrome earlier than MaryWesley was born.

Thomas’ father, Wes, is a lawyer; his mom, Kimberly has just lately opened a curation enterprise, the place she takes discovered gadgets and turns them into one thing helpful.

Family and friends from throughout the state stuffed the large sanctuary at Buncombe Road United Methodist Church for his funeral. It was estimated 1,800 individuals attended.

The household requested that as an alternative of shopping for flowers, individuals give to Emmanuel’s Hammer, a non-profit that repairs or rebuilds unsafe houses for free of charge and works with the house owner to fulfill different essential wants they could have — monetary, bodily and non secular.

“Cash was pouring in,” Kimberly Few stated Wednesday.

They knew they wanted to do one thing particular.

And so forth Sunday they are going to dedicate the H2O Home on the campus of the Frazee Middle, a Greenville group that grew over the previous 16 years from a easy afterschool program to working a preschool, an elementary after-school and summer time camp, a center faculty management program, a number of sports activities groups, a counseling middle and a mentorship program.

The H2O Home, which stands for well being, hygiene and alternative, is a renovated single-family residence that has laundry amenities, showers, a front room and break room for households in want.

The Few household has additionally donated to a brand new chapel on Clemson’s campus and has established a scholarship in Thomas’ main, building science.

“I’m a really faith-based individual,” Kimberly Few stated. “There’s a tragedy. It’s unhappy however on the finish of the day how are individuals residing their lives? What are they doing to assist these in want.”

Organizations have volunteered to renovate the home — their church, Buncombe Road, Thomas’ fraternity Kappa Alpha, amongst them.

“Thomas made an amazing impression on the world,” Few stated. “No negativity. He liked individuals.”

It was essential to her after his loss of life that his buddies continued to really feel that. She labored to ensure they have been OK after Thomas’ loss of life.

“No guilt, no disgrace,” she stated.

They have been nice buddies and had nice occasions collectively. That’s the reminiscence she hopes they maintain onto.

She has made it via the deaths of two sons by the grace of God, she stated.

“I’ve been surrounded by a neighborhood of believers, statewide and past,” she stated.

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